Angel Hernandez is charged with stealing two vehicles in Stamford, including one with the ashes of the car owner's grandfather. Stamford Police said Hernandez led them to the urn and it was returned to the car owner.Photo Credit: Stamford Police

STAMFORD, Conn. -- A man accused of stealing two cars led Stamford police to the place where he dumped what officers discovered was the urn containing the ashes of a car owner's grandfather, police said.

Angel Hernandez, 43, no address given, was charged with reckless endangerment, engaging police in pursuit, second-degree larceny, interfering with police and operating a motor vehicle without a license in connection with the Friday incident.

Stamford police say Hernandez took a 2003 Lincoln Navigator from the Global gas station at 765 E. Main St. just before 8 p.m. Friday. The owner had left the keys inside the vehicle when he went into the gas station, police said.

Officers responded to the scene and quickly located the Navigator, but the driver engaged them in a pursuit, police said. The chase ended in the South End of the city when Hernandez left the vehicle and ran, police said. Officers quickly located him behind a house on Lipton Street, police said.

Hernandez admitted to taking the Navigator, police said. Upon further questioning, he admitted that he had also stolen a white BMW and abandoned it on Manhattan Street two days before, police said. The car owner told police the ashes of her grandfather were in an urn that was inside a box in the car.

Police said Hernandez told them he remembered the box and had disposed of the bag on the north side of Manhattan Street along the brick wall behind some garbage bags. Hernandez was taken to the area he described, and officers located a dark-colored bag containing keys and a blue box with a name written across the top, police said.

Police said other drivers have left their keys in their vehicles only to see them stolen. Police said an arrest is forthcoming in those cases.